Stefan Küng of the BMC Development Team added the Under 23 European Championship road race title Sunday to the individual time trial crown he won on Friday in his home country of Switzerland.

‘An Amazing Feeling’
The future BMC Racing Team rider attacked two breakaway companions inside the final kilometer and held off the chasing peloton to win the 172.8-km race. “I actually had a small crash early in the race and was not feeling so good, but then I started to feel better toward the end,” Küng said. “With 500 meters to go, I looked back and saw the peloton was not far away. So I attacked on the right side and did not look back. It was an amazing feeling when I crossed the finish line. I am very proud to have been able to show everyone what I can do and get a second title.” Luri Filosi (Italy) was runner-up and Anthony Turgis (France) finished third. Four other riders from the BMC Development Team joined Küng in the road race: Tom Bohli – who finished ninth – and Lukas Spengler, who were also part of the Swiss team, as well as Dylan Teuns and Loic Vliegen of Belgium.

Comparisons To Cancellara
In Friday’s 26.9-km time trial, Küng and his BMC timemachine TM01 were 24 seconds faster than runner-up Davide Martinelli (Italy) and 45 seconds better than Alexander Evtushenko (Russia). BMC Development Team General Manager Rik Verbrugghe said Küng reminds him of another Swiss rider, past world time trial champion Fabian Cancellara. “Stefan rides like him – he is a real classics rider and a specialist in the time trial,” Verbrugghe said. “We knew the time trial was special for him at these championships so we went for it and then we wanted to see what happened in the road race. It was amazing.” At the Swiss road championships last month, Küng was runner-up to Cancellara (Trek Factory Racing) in the professional time trial while winning the elite men’s road race crown. Two days later, he signed multi-year contract with the BMC Racing Team. “This has been an amazing time,” Küng said. “It’s great to become double European champion and to do it in Switzerland is even better.”